The “Call for Speakers” for the 2021 SAPICS Conference is open, SAPICS (The Professional Body for Supply Chain Management) has announced. Industry professionals are invited to submit presentations for consideration for this year’s line-up at Africa’s leading event for supply chain professionals.

Inspirational and educational success stories, enlightening case studies and presentations focusing on new concepts or technologies are all welcome, states SAPICS president Keabetswe Mpane. “The SAPICS Conference is the ideal platform for supply chain professionals to make a valuable contribution to the annual update of our profession’s body of knowledge.”

SAPICS 2021 will be a virtual event

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SAPICS 2021 will be a virtual event. “With the shadow of this health crisis still hanging over the world, we had to make the difficult decision to go online this year. We are disappointed that the SAPICS supply chain community will not be able to meet up face to face at an in-person event, to learn and network, as we have done at more than 40 previous SAPICS conferences. However, a virtual conference ensures that our delegates will still have access to the exceptional international presenters that they have come to expect at SAPICS, as well as compelling local speakers and presentations. In past years, the SAPICS Conference programme has included some of the most renowned and dynamic speakers from the global supply chain. This year will be no different,” Mpane stresses.

The theme for the 2021 SAPICS Conference is “Refine, Rebuild, Reconnect”. “Someone in education coined the 3Rs many decades ago, and it stood for reading, writing and arithmetic. The annual SAPICS Conference offers unrivalled learning, skills development and knowledge sharing opportunities, so we decided to build on this theme for the 2021 SAPICS Conference; but the 3Rs that will take centre stage in the supply chain context at SAPICS 2021 are Refine, Rebuild and Reconnect,” Mpane explains.

Expanding on the theme, she says: “Supply chains around the world have been challenged exponentially. Some need to be completely re-built. Others survived better; but the wise and determined will know that supply chains keep needing to be refined. By reconnecting at SAPICS 2021, supply chain professionals from South Africa and around the world can share knowledge and experience, to learn from each other and to ensure that global supply chains are perpetually resilient and able to keep the world turning.”

Speaker submissions for the 2021 SAPICS Conference will be open until 28 February 2021. Presenters who want to share best practices, learnings, solutions, case studies, thought leadership presentations and white papers with the delegates should visit the website for guidelines, criteria and presentation format options.